Red Cross for animals: Palm Beach-based rescue vehicle saves pets

The town of Palm Beach is home to a 50-foot, 30,000-pound rescue vehicle that can be deployed anywhere in the country to scenes of hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. A group of volunteers sleep on board and spend their days searching the wreckage for survivors – but not the two-legged type.

It's part of the American Humane Association's Red Star program, the cat and dog equivalent of the Red Cross. The local truck, named the Lois Pope Red Star Rescue Vehicle after the Manalapan philanthropist who funded it, is ready at a moment's notice to help find and rescue pets in impact zones.

"The definition of family today includes our animal friends," said Robin Ganzert, president and CEO of the American Humane Association, a nonprofit formed in 1877 to protect children and animals. "And that's why Red Star Rescue is determined to be ready 365 days of the year to make sure that all of our family members are reunited after tragedy strikes."

Red Star got its start in 1916, when the War Department asked the American Humane Association to assist horses used by the Army during World War I. In the nearly 100 years since then, it has played a part in helping animals in disasters here and abroad, among them 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Fukushima and Superstorm Sandy.

The organization's fleet includes two regional vehicles: the Palm Beach-based one and a second in New Jersey. Also part of the fleet is an 82-foot emergency response tractor, which carries search and rescue equipment and even boats. All three are pulled by Ford 350 pickup trucks.

Since its debut just over a year ago, the Palm Beach-based Red Star vehicle has been helped rescue hundreds of animals after disasters, including the tornado that tore through Moore, Okla., in May 2013. Its work isn't limited to natural disasters, though: the truck also pitched in to care for 200 animals after a Milton, N.J. shelter had to be shut down temporarily.

And it has twice deployed to the secret place where officials are holding dogs that were part of the country's second-largest illegal dog fighting ring. The dogs are in a sort of witness protection program pending the trial, in which they'll serve as evidence.

The volunteers staffing the truck go through rigorous training and are screened by the Department of Homeland Security to ensure it's safe to let them in disaster zones.

They're always on call, and are willing to go on weeklong deployments to disaster zones, sleeping in rescue trucks and working with animals all day.

Among them is Janet Swanson of the Villages, a longtime animal lover who said she jumped at the opportunity to get involved.

"Those of us who have animals, whenever we just hear about a disaster, are concerned about the animals involved, simply because they're part of the family," she said.

Lois Pope feels the same way. The widow of National Enquirer founder Generoso Pope Jr., she donated $100,000 toward the vehicle and also paid for the one that's based in New Jersey.

"We have to make sure that these animals aren't forgotten, that they're cared for with comfort and compassion," Lois Pope said. "That's what this is all about."

It didn't take long for her vehicle to be in demand: The tornado hit Moore a month after its dedication. Soon after, leaders there were asking it to drive over. The American Humane Association emailed its volunteers all over the U.S. and had the vehicle on the road days after the tornado touched down.

On board was Henry Kurusz, a Wellington native and American Humane Association staffer. Traffic came to a stop as they got closer to town, he recalled. After that, almost everywhere around them was total destruction.

"It looked like a lumberyard in some places," Kurusz said.

Swanson, who arrived there a few weeks later, said she'd never seen anything like it.

"I had planned on taking pictures," she said. "And I just couldn't. I couldn't do that."

Over about a month-long period, Kurusz and Swanson and others like them were able to pair hundreds of lost pets with their owners. Those that went unclaimed found new homes in the community during an adopt-a-thon at the end of the deployment.

Kurusz got to see multiple reunions between families and their pets.

"There's always tears involved," he said. "People are just unbelievably excited to get their animals back."

Sometimes it makes all the difference.

"There were people that were able to look past everything they lost if their pet was OK," Kurusz said.